Lip balm workshop a happy success

What a lovely day at Cheri's house! I want to thank all the women who attended the workshop: Teresa, Brenda, Kim, Stephanie, Mattie, Deanna, Katelyn, Gracen and of course our host, Cheri. Thank you all for coming and making the workshop a happy success. I think Cheri will be announcing our upcoming soapmaking workshop very soon. Hope to see you there!

 

Lip balm and lotion bar workshop

I am happy to announce that I will be teaching an herbal workshop from noon till 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, at Cheri Porter’s home on Geng Road. Cheri will host the lip balm and lotion bar workshop and will also provide a light lunch for everyone. It is always fun when a group of friends discover the thrill of making their own all-natural, luscious products for their lips and skin. Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Canning for one

It’s hard sometimes, feeling motivated when there’s a 100-degree heat index and I’m thinking, it’s just me nowadays, just one person, so why should I care about canning tomatoes? A hot job if there ever was one, especially without even a breeze blowing through my holler. Or any air conditioning. I’d rather stretch out somewhere cool with my Kindle. And yet, there’s something fulfilling about canning my own home-grown organic tomatoes, about recognizing a survival chore for the blessing that it is. I think my friends who raise chickens and gather their eggs feel the same way, that the chore is also a blessing, a connection with Nature that keeps us feeling grounded and peaceful.

When my kids were little I used quart jars and went through tons of tomatoes. I’m still canning –actually I should say, I’ve come back to canning—but I’ve downsized my jars. I’ve started using 8-ounce jelly jars, which make perfect single-size helpings, great for adding to the almost-daily pot of vegetable soup that will sit on the woodstove come winter, or for making a tiny amount of pasta sauce or pizza sauce. The small jars save me heaps of tomatoes—and energy—because I’m not putting up more than I can consume, and I don’t need to refrigerate leftovers.

To can tomatoes in 8-ounce canning jars, I add a pinch of salt and just under a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to each jar of hot, diced tomatoes, then process in the boiling waterbath for 10 

minutes.